Air Combat Maneuvering
Flight Procedures
NEUTRAL 1 V 1
On your ACM-8 and ACM-9, you’ll get introduced to neutral engagements. Normally, these will be
initiated from a position 1 to 1-1/2 mile abeam at 16,000 ft, with the airspeed of your choice. The
bandit will announce, “With a tally, fight’s on,” and you will go kill him. Questions?
HIGH-ASPECT BFM
There are several different considerations when approaching high-aspect BFM. First of all, what sort
of merge are you likely to encounter? Here in the Training Command, your neutral sets will occur
from close range (typically inside of 1-1/2 mile) with both fighter and bandit having a tally of the
other. Assuming that neither jet is willing to give away any position advantage at the merge, (and a
forward quarter missile has not found its way into your face), you will pass with 500 ft (minimum for
training rules) and 180 degrees off the tail. From here, you will employ all the BFM knowledge that
you have acquired to accomplish your goals. Since your objectives can change given your degree of
offensiveness or defensiveness, it is important to be flexible in your game-plan execution.
Flow
As you have already seen from your reading, every engagement can be broken down in terms of the
flow that it is generating. One-circle flow occurs when one aircraft reverses at the merge, creating a
fight defined by turn radius (see Figure 29).
Figure 29: ONE CIRCLE: RADIUS
(10-98) Original
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